Why I Don’t Use a Curriculum for Homeschooling

I think one of the biggest concerns of new homeschoolers or those considering it is deciding how to handle using and choosing a curriculum for homeschooling. But it’s not really something I worry about because I personally have never used a set curriculum for homeschooling my children.

I looked at a few different options before we began our homeschooling journey but none of them fit my needs. All of the full curriculums I found were either faith based; all-in including textbooks, workbooks and supplies; or covered more topics than I was looking for. And at the price of a full curriculum ($200+ per grade level) it just wasn’t worth it to me as I knew I wouldn’t end up using a lot of the stuff I was paying for. So instead I’ve created my own curriculum for homeschooling.

But that doesn’t mean I buy a lot of the big, traditional textbooks and workbooks for each subject area instead.  This is most of Honeybun’s books which will get her through third grade:

A lot of the books came from the dollar store or dollar spot at Target (and were actually a dollar!) and most of the other books came from the dent and ding or clearance sections of my favorite online bookstores and the only things I paid close to full price for are the spelling and handwriting books plus the Common Core Language Arts and Math book which covers all of the Common Core learning standards for each grade that I use as an end of grade assessment to ensure my children have met the same learning goals as their peers for each grade level (yes I follow the Common Core as part of our curriculum for homeschooling, this is why and this is how).  All in, this cost me right at $60 (about 40% savings off the cover prices of the not dollar books) and some of the books can be used again for my other kids as they grow (or if I took the time to copy the pages instead of having Honeybun write in the books, I could reuse all of them!)

But the reason I don’t buy a complete curriculum for homeschooling or even full sets for individual subjects is not just about the cost, it’s also about the value of the resources.

• Books with a lot of “fluff” like pages and pages of explanations without opportunities to try don’t work for our family, my kids learn by doing and practicing, not by reading explanations.
• Books with too much practice on a single concept are wasteful for us.  Honeybun learns extremely quickly and so having to repeat the same concept over and over again would be frustrating for her (I was the same kind of learner, so I know!) so instead of wasting pages, I just find more opportunities for her to practice the skills she needs help with when necessary.
• I don’t really want to support the “big guys.” Textbook manufacturers already make a killing off the overpriced books they sell to school districts all over the country, they don’t really need my dollars too.

So instead, I buy the cheap stuff and when I need something specific to round out my curriculum for homeschooling, I turn to the experts, teachers, and buy most of our supplemental work off of teacherpayteachers.com because I know the majority of the money I am spending goes directly to those teachers who created the work.  I know I’m getting exactly what I need without buying excessive materials I won’t use and because I print them at home, I have them to use with all of my kids in the future without having to copy page by page.

It’s a win-win-win.  I win by saving money and time.  The teachers win by making a little extra money (and what teacher couldn’t use a little extra?).  And my kids win because they get exactly the materials they need.

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